On Monday, a federal judge in Sioux Falls ruled that South Dakota’s constitutional and statutory prohibition on same-sex marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. Six same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the governor, the attorney general, the secretary of the South Dakota Department of Health, and other public officials seeking to overturn the ban on gay marriage.

Judge Karen Schreier found that marriage is a fundamental right and that the law violated equal protection and due-process rights without sufficient justification. She postponed enforcement of her decision, however, to allow state officials to appeal to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court that hears appeals from South Dakota.

Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota said yes to increasing their states’ minimum wages as they cast their ballots November 4. Illinois voters said the same thing in a nonbinding vote.

Here’s a look at the new state minimum wages, according to Ballotpedia: read more…

Voters in four states—Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota—will decide on minimum wage increases when they go to the polls on November 4, and Illinois voters will make their opinion on the issue known in a nonbinding vote. Information on state ballot measures from Ballotpedia indicates:

Voters will decide whether to increase Alaska’s minimum wage from $7.75 to $8.75 on January 1, 2015, and to $9.75 on January 1, 2016.

The Arkansas question asks voters whether they want to raise the state’s minimum wage from $6.25 to $7.50 on January 1, 2015; to $8 on January 1, 2016; and to $8.50 on January 1, 2017.

In Nebraska, voters will decide whether to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8 on January 1, 2015, and to $9 on January 1, 2016.

Voters will decide whether to raise South Dakota’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 on January 1, 2015.

South Dakota voters overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates as they swept to victory in all of the state constitutional office races, including the governor’s race. On a national level, Blue Dog Democratic candidate Stephanie Herseth Sandlin lost her third-term bid for the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to newcomer Republican Kristi Noem. In the past, Herseth Sandlin has won her elections by overwhelming majorities.

Though a similar measure was narrowly defeated in 2006, this year South Dakota resoundingly rejected Initiative 13, which called for the legalization of medical marijuana. As a result employers can breathe a sigh of relief because the measure raised numerous questions about how they might be called on to respond to employees who were registered users.

Under the proposal, an employer couldn’t refuse to hire someone who held a marijuana registration. Yet what was unclear under the initiative was how employees who were under the influence at work could be treated: read more…